To Rush, With Love (or Hate)

The cowardly, bumbling RNC Chairman Michael Steele is doing his best Mark McGwire impression. He just wants to move on and get over the whole “I spoke the truth about Rush Limbaugh and now I’m groveling because I’m a huge sissy” thing.

“My point is that there are a lot of opinions out there, some come from people who are notable, some from people who are not so notable. And my job is to try to balance that. I wasn’t that effective at it this week, but, you know, I’ve been 30 days on the job and we’ll, you know, move forward,” Steele said on NBC’s “Today” show.

The following is a guest post from our good friend Benny J:

It was a paradigm shift. Nothing would ever be the same in America, and Americans would forever view the world differently. A few reckless, nihilistic extremists had destroyed the lives of thousands of families, and one of the most prominent symbols of advanced capitalist industrial democracies had collapsed.

No, I’m not talking about 9/11. I’m talking about the nihilistic extremists on Wall Street, and America’s financial catastrophe, in which we currently find ourselves. Unless you watch stock tickers, the television footage might not be as horrifying, and the whole thing may be more drawn out and complex if you’re not currently waiting in an unemployment line, but mark my words, this is Barack Obama’s 9/11.

Don’t believe me? Look around. Take stock. Practically every American industry is in, or will soon be in cardiac arrest. Every month, the economy hemorrhages enough jobs to be put in the ICU for years.

Like Bush II, Barack Obama has inherited something that will have equal if not more cultural significance than 9//11, and he’s taking advantage, calling for unity and commitment. Other countries may not feel 9/11 sympathy towards America, but you can bet your sweet bippy they can all relate. This thing is way more global than the war on terrorism—it’s a war on a global economic tumble we’re still trying to comprehend. Will we win it?

If you are Rush Limbaugh or one of his followers, you want us to lose this war. You don’t support the troops. You don’t stand united—you’d rather stage a protest than get things done. I don’t expect Rush to feel any other way. After all, Obama’s big spending policies thus far fly in the face of everything Rush believes, and if Obama’s strategies succeed, Rush’s key demographic will almost certainly shrink. Studies and common sense show that people whose lives improve under a government, support the party in power of that government. Duh. We shouldn’t blame Rush for not changing his mind—doing so is moot. The people will decide.

Instead, we should ask ourselves where the majority of Americans stand. Do they truly hope Obama and the democrats fail? I don’t think so, and pretty much every statistic on consumer spending and saving (as well as plain old polling) agrees with me. Americans are hurting, and scared. Americans know it’s going to get worse before it gets better, even if they search their hearts and souls for a merciful solution to their foreclosures, their mounting debts and dwindling checks.

True, the political unity isn’t there like it was after 9/11. Maybe that’s a good thing—it’s not like Iraq and Afghanistan have made us proud and prosperous. I’ll bet your average GM line worker wouldn’t mind a little taste of the hundreds of billions transferred to Halliburton accounts and other overseas operations right about now. But while official and non-official leaders of the Republican Party are patting themselves on the back for brave opposition, they might be failing to recognize that the majority of Americans are hurdling towards a moment in time when they, pardon my French, could give a fuck.

Republican complaints about big spending and big government, nationalizing banks, raising taxes on the wealthy and handouts, don’t really relate when you’ve got no-one else but government to turn to. And I’d love to see families with incomes above $250,000 in 2009 face everybody else in a barnyard brawl—it would be a massacre.

So go ahead Rush and company, root for failure. Be our guests. Don’t get too lonely out there.